Legislation for the "interception modernisation programme" will not be included in the Queen's speech next week. But do not relax: the Home Office has an unyielding ambition to grant itself and 653 authorities access to the data from every email, phone call, text message and internet connectionThis apparent withdrawal is in fact a long-range strategy that seeks to defuse the issue before the general election, at a time when there is increasing fear about Britain's surveillance state. How wise would it have been to make the Queen rehearse these dreadful measures in her speech, just a week after celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Stasi? The Home Office and Alan Johnson know better than to make a gift like this to those who question not just this government's motives but the relentlessly authoritarian agenda in the Home Office.

There are other good reasons for the delay, now that the idea of an expensive single database has been abandoned. The companies who will be charged with gathering and retaining information on their customers have raised doubts about feasibility, as well as privacy and cost. The Home Office must gain their compliance. So they have taken the heat out of the issue and are biding their time until a future Conservative government has been groomed by officials to see the overwhelming need for this massive spy system.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, quoted in the Daily Telegraph, certainly does not give much confidence that he will resist such demands. He said: "The big danger in all this is 'mission creep'."

He means to say "function creep", but naturally once the system is set up there will be no need for creep of any kind because its sole purpose is to spy on anyone the government or local authorities chose. All it needs is a senior police officer to give the go-ahead, and at that point, when even the fire service will be able to access the data from a person's communications, we will be able to declare without doubt the death of Britain's free society.

Judging by Grayling's limp reaction to the story, I don't believe the Conservatives can yet be trusted. In all these areas, they hedge their bets, trim their language and finesse their stance. Until they start reacting like David Davis, who instinctively understands the threat posed by the Home Office and generally by surveillance systems, they are not worth voting for.

Like those people who made the fall of the wall happen, at some stage the British will have to fight for their freedom. Let's not leave it until it's too late.